The state of those who have read the novel before seeing the play, is gracious; the state of those who have seen the play without having previously read the novel, is the more gracious. _Svengali_, the weird unwashed Hebrew, the fantastical, musical magician, so dominates the story, that the author of his being will be remembered as GEORGE _JEW_ MAURIER. And _Svengali_ the Satanical, marvellously impersonated by Mr. BEERBOHM TREE, stands out as the central figure of the strange unconventional drama at the Haymarket. It isn't _Trilby_, the hypnotised subject, but _Svengali_, the fearful "object," the dirty demoniac hypnotiser, on whom all eyes are fixed, and in whom the interest is centred. He is Shylock and Fagin, Mephistophelesized; he is as loathsome as Hyde without Jekyl; he is the Spirit of Evil in the story of the Devil's Violin; he is the haunting, cringing fiend in the Shadowless Man; he is, in fact, the very Deuce himself. "O don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt," is the "old song" which, at first, _Miss Trilby O'Ferrall_ "cannot sing," but which, when hypnotised by Satanical _Svengali_, she does sing; and, with this, and with one or two other ancient ditties in her rather limited _répertoire_, she makes _Svengali's_ fortune. The _Diva_ is beaten and kicked by the savage _Svengali_ (not in the presence of the audience) as if she were his slave, and he the brutal slave-driver. But, _why this treatment, if he has only to hypnotise her in order to render her obedient to his slightest wish_? It is, I suppose, considered necessary he should do so, in order to excite our compassion for his victim, the unfortunate _Miss Trilby_, and so to bring down upon him the just chastisement which is the immediate cause of his death. Otherwise, as _Svengali_ has told her he loves her, and as she (hypnotised of course) becomes his wife, why this horrible ill-treatment? This seems to me to be the only weak point in the plot of Mr. PAUL POTTER'S undeniably clever end most effective play. But surely _Svengali's_ diabolically jealous hatred of "_Little Billee_," his successful rival in the affections of _Trilby_ (when unhypnotised) would be sufficient, motive for the brutal insult he inflicts on _Miss O'Ferrall's_ faithful, but insignificant, little lover, and for which, at the hands of the strong man, _Taffy_, the fiend-like _Svengali_ has to pay with his life.